There was a soft vibrating noise that carried from the sitting room into the kitchen. Connie frowned in it's direction whilst Grace arranged herself on a dining chair, her IPod placed on the table before her and she sat, untangling her headphones, without looking up.

"Good morning sweetheart..."

Connie's words seemed to come too late. She had waited just that little bit too long between Grace coming into the room, and sitting down, to speak, and now her words seemed stilted and hollow.

She swallowed and glanced to Rita who widened her eyes, neither woman had any idea what to say to make this better...to make it bearable...

Connie pulled out the chair nearest Grace and sat down stiffly. She folded her hands in front of her, and then, as if instantly changing her mind, she reached out her right hand, slipping her fingers across the table towards Grace, willing her to accept her touch, willing her to reach out to her in return.

"Grace..."

She cleared her throat, her attention caught momentarily by the return of the vibrating from the sitting room.

Grace remained motionless. Her eyes still lowered, showing only the reflection of the screen before her.

"I thought we might go into town today. Just you and me? I thought we could do a bit of shopping, and then you could - "

Grace pushed her headphones into her ears and pressed play, the music so loud that it sounded out into the room about her head.

Connie flexed the hand that she had extended, clenching and unclenching. Again she looked to Rita who stood opposite her, leaning against the work top, tea in hand. The younger woman glanced to Grace, her pale face lowered, her dark eyes fixed on the black screen of her ipod, her body unmoving despite the tinny beat within her ears.

Defeated, Connie pushed her chair back from the table with an alarming grate and stood up. She touched her fingertips to the surface of the table, feeling the cool wood beneath her touch. Again came that incessant buzzing and Connie glanced towards the doorway to the other room.

"Is that your phone?"

She asked sharply, the noise suddenly irritating her.

Rita followed her gaze.

"It's probably work wanting me to come in earlier."

She spoke as she raised her mug to her mouth and took a sip of her tea. As she swallowed the noise came again, the sound of her phone vibrating against the solid wood of the coffee table. She made an irritated noise in the back of her throat and set the mug down on the side before making her way back into the sitting room.

Connie watched her go, loathe to turn back to her daughter. She drew in a breath and exhaled slowly. She was tired of trying to hold things together that could not be held. Trying to control what could not be controlled. She watched as Rita appeared back in the doorway, a frown creasing her forehead. She was tired of denying herself what she wanted for fear of breaking things that she could not fix. They would break, she realised, no matter what they did...

"What the fuck?!"

Rita's exclamation caught her off guard, it roused her from her thoughts and she noticed out of the corner of her eye, how Grace reached out to lower the volume of her music slightly.

"Fuck!"

Rita repeated, her mouth was open, one hand was at her forehead, her fingers threaded loosely through her blonde hair, her forehead creased, her eyes wide as she stared down at the phone within her hand.

"Rita?"

As Connie spoke, Rita looked up at her, her mouth still hung open, as though whatever it was she wanted to say, just wouldn't come out. Instead she held out her phone as Connie came near, and as the older woman took the phone from her hand, she could feel herself beginning to tremble.

Connie looked at the screen. For a moment she wasn't sure what she was looking for. And then, with the rising creep of ice up her spine, she realised, as she looked down at the photo she had sent to Rita that morning – she realised as she looked at the 14 missed calls, and 22 text messages...23 text messages, the phone vibrated again as she held it.

"Everyone in my address book."

Connie looked up at her.

"It's been sent to everyone in my address book..."

Rita whispered. Her cheeks were flushed, and she swallowed. Her stomach winced as the phone began to ring again.

: your reviews are always so lovely, thank you!

SuranneKeeleyBeauchamp and LittleBooLost: Now you know what Grace has been up to!

Wowstars: Grace will come round...eventually... :) and as for the office scene(!) you won't have to wait too much longer...thank you so much for your lovely reviews.

More tomorrow, I promise it will be a longer update :) xxx